Books

By Siobhán Fenton

- An exploration of Northern Ireland's peace process twenty years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, to consider how stable the peace is and on what compromises it is based.

Book summary

“Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement, although Northern Irish politics has avoided returning to the bloodshed of the Troubles, the peace which is exists is deeply troubled and far from stable. The botched parliament at Stormont lumbers from crisis to crisis and society remains deeply divided. At the time of writing, Sinn Féin and the DUP are refusing to share power and Northern Ireland is facing being run directly from London. Brexit also poses a serious threat to the hard won stability between the UK and Ireland.

This remarkable book examines power-sharing and the peace process in Northern Ireland on the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and asks what it has achieved beyond an end to violence. She concludes that, although it brought an end to violent blood shed on Northern Ireland's streets, it also failed to create healthy and functional politics.

The Good Friday Agreement served an important purpose in 1998, but has since been out-paced by local and global politics. It is no longer fit to facilitate the peaceful politics it made possible, as the current collapse of power-sharing shows.“

- Author of the essay 'On Northern Ireland' about the possible social, legal and political implications of abortion being legalised in the Republic while remaining illegal in Northern Ireland.

Book summary

"Abortion is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland, making it the only democracy in the western world to have such a constitutional ban:

· Between 1980 and 2015, at least 165,438 Irish women and girls accessed UK abortion services. In 2016, the figure was 3,265.· Any woman or girl who procures an abortion, or anyone who assists a woman to procure an abortion in Ireland can be criminalised and imprisoned for up to fourteen years.· A woman may not procure an abortion in Ireland if she is pregnant due to incest or rape, or to prevent inevitable miscarriage and fatal foetal abnormality.

The movement to repeal the Eighth Amendment and make abortion legal in Ireland has grown massively over the last few years. This anthology shares the literature, personal stories, opinions, photography, art and design produced by the movement that catalysed 2018’s momentous referendum.

Featuring prize-winning novelists, critically acclaimed poets, cutting-edge artists and journalists on the front line, this anthology will be the definitive collection of the art inspired by the most pressing debate in contemporary Ireland, and beyond."